This invention relates to covers for club heads, and more particularly to a head cover for a golf club which may conveniently be used as a wiper and scrubber for cleaning a golf ball or golf club, as well as to the method of applying the cover hereof to a golf club.
Although golf club head covers exist in various configurations for providing protection for golf club heads while the club is not in actual use, only a few have been developed which are intended to serve an additional purpose of permitting the golfer to utilize the cover as a wiper for cleaning the golf ball or the club during play. One such dual purpose club head cover is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,570, issued to Edra J. Stewart, in which it is pointed out that such dual purpose covers are particularly useful as a putter cover. When a golfer takes the putter to the putting green, he/she removes the dual purpose cover from the putter and may use it to wipe the ball and/or the putter prior to putting. The Stewart device, which is constructed of terry cloth or toweling, includes a head-engaging portion conforming to the configuration to the putter head, a narrowed "waist" portion which may be elasticized for grasping the club shaft, and an elongate skirt portion hanging loosely around a considerable portion of the length of the shaft of the club. The skirt portion may, alternatively, be fastened by VELCRO.RTM. fasteners or other quick fastening means on the skirt, for causing the skirt to furl around the club shaft when the club is not in use.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,652, issued to Alsie G. Hyden and Bill J. Blundell, discloses a combined putter head cover and towel, in which a boot-shaped sheath fits over the putter head and may include an elastic band for aiding in the retention of the boot on the putter head. A towel is secured about the peripheral edge of the boot's leg portion and is open along its length, apparently for hanging about the putter's shaft in a manner similar to the cover of the Stewart patent.
In each of these prior art devices, the head-engaging portion is shaped to the configuration of a particular type of putter head for fitting over the entire club head including the head's heel end and the club's distal toe end, and the towel portion substantially surrounds the putter's shaft. It would appear that such devices are not freely usable with different shapes and sizes of golf club heads, or even with different shapes and sizes of putter heads. Moreover, the circumstance of the towel's surrounding the shaft may interfere with the placing of the covered club in the golf club bag, as well as with the placing or withdrawing of other golf clubs in or from the bag containing the covered club. Further, the golfer would not conveniently be able to directly grasp the covered club by its shaft in the vicinity of the club head when withdrawing or replacing the club from or into the bag.
The foregoing disadvantages of prior art combined wiper and club head cover devices are overcome by means of the invention disclosed in the aforementioned co-pending U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,968, which patent is incorporated herein by reference. A combined wiper and club head cover device is disclosed therein which may be used with golf clubs having heads of various sizes or shapes, and which does not surround the club shaft but instead is disposed away from the shaft and drapes over an end of the club, so that the covered club may be positioned in the golf bag with the draped portion of the device disposed outside the periphery of the golf club bag. The manner in which the cover is disposed precludes interference with other clubs in the bag while permitting the covered club to be withdrawn from and returned to the golf club bag with ease and convenience not previously available with prior art combined wiper and head cover devices.
In describing the head cover of U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,968 as well as of the present invention, it is recognized that a club to be utilized with the head cover includes a head attached to a shaft, the head including two opposed ends conventionally referred to as the heel and the toe of the club head. The head cover of the parent application comprises a panel of pliant material such as cloth; means for engaging the panel with a first end of the club head such that the panel drapes from or over the second end of the club head when the club is vertically positioned with its head above its shaft; and means for releasably securing the panel to the club shaft with the engaging means the first end of the club head such that the draping panel extends away from the shaft and substantially confined to one side of the shaft. The panel, which is preferably of terry cloth or toweling material, includes an end-engaging portion inwardly extending from an edge of the panel, for engaging the first end of the club head; and the cover includes fastening means along the panel's edge in the vicinity of the panel's end-engaging portion, for releasably securing the panel to the club shaft with the end-engaging portion engaging the head's first end and with the panel covering the club head and draping over the head's second end when the club is vertically positioned with its head above its shaft.
As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,968, the panel may be considered as including two edges joined at the end-engaging portion. The fastening means, which is preferably a quick-fastening and quick-release device such as cooperating strips of mating hooks and loops marketed under the trademark VELCRO, is situated at the panel edges in the vicinity of the end-engaging portion for releasably securing the panel to the club shaft with the end-engaging portion engaging the head's first end and with the panel covering the club head and draping over the second end of the head when the club is vertically positioned with the head above the shaft.